what’s twitter and why you should (or shouldn’t) bother

Imagine this. You arrive at a bustling, networking event and casually walk into the center of the very large, very crowded room. All around you, groups of varying sizes are engaged in lively conversation. From where you stand, you can catch snippets of every discussion, and a little smidgen of what each person is saying. That guy over in the corner is the promoter for that hot new nightclub downtown, and he’s offering all of his group free admission this Friday. The young lady a few feet away from him is happily sharing small business marketing advice and is giving a referral to a friend of hers who provides half-off discounts to the best restaurants in the city. The guy standing next to her isn’t saying as much as everyone else, but when he does, it’s the wittiest / funniest thing you’ve ever heard! And the woman on the far side of the room looks like Erykah Badu. No, wait…she IS Erykah Badu! As you stand there and listen some more, hundreds of other useful tidbits buzz by your ears. It’s hard to keep up with them all and you’re worried that you’ll never have enough time to meet and connect with all of the cool, funny, interesting, and helpful people in front of you. Plus, you’ve got valuable information and witty repartee of your own to share… but how are you ever going to be able to engage with everyone?

Just then, Rod Serling magically appears at your side, and says, “There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ‘The Twitter Zone’. ”

Suddenly, the room goes dead silent. Everything begins moving in slow motion. When the next person opens their mouth to speak, you see their words appear written in a little bubble over their head with a time and date stamp on the end of it. You – and everyone else in the room – can go around and literally cherry-pick out of the air those bits of conversation that are interesting to you and put them in your book of acquaintances. Every time you open your book, you’ll have a growing history of everything those people said since you picked them. Those you don’t pick, won’t show up in the book. And because of the time / date stamp, you can see how long ago the words were said. Likewise, anyone who’s put your name in their book, will be able to see everything you’ve said. “Wow” you think to yourself, “This is pretty friggin’ amazing!” “No,” says Rod Serling, “This. Is Twitter.”

Ok. So maybe that was way more dramatic and illustrative than it needed to be, but I’ve had countless people over the past few months ask me, “What the hell is this Twitter?”, so I’ve had a lot of time to come up with a suitably descriptive analogy.

Like most people, when I first signed on to Twitter (a little more than a year ago) – I just didn’t get it. At that point, my social networking tool of choice was Myspace, mainly because I liked interacting with people that I knew in real life or had some other close connection with (e.g., people who loved to cook or write). Over time, the sleaze-factor on MySpace became too much, so I migrated to Facebook. Still, I was interacting almost exclusively with people I knew. But at that time, I was also starting to build this blog, where I was writing about various events, restaurants, artists, and just random points of interest that floated into my head. I began to notice that some of the other blogs that I read were also using Twitter, so I decided to give it another go. I posted a few tweets about upcoming events and some of those random points of interest. I posted a few more tweets pointing people to new blog posts. I did a search for people who were tweeting about similar things – Atlanta, food, music, art, spirituality – and began following their tweets. Soon, I had a whole cadre of strangers that I was, in effect, listening in on. I was getting info on upcoming performances, discounts to events and attractions, bits of info on the web, and all manner of humorous observations. Of course, there were several people who I eventually purged from my ‘book of acquaintances’ because they rarely said anything of interest or import. But those people could still listen in on to whatever I had to say, if they wanted to. For a while, I was so enamored with the new tool, I completely neglected my Facebook account. But now, I use them both equally. On Facebook, I connect on a more intimate level with people I know but may not see very often. While on Twitter, I connect with people that I may never, ever see but who regularly provide info I want to know or vice-versa. Of course, there’s some overlap as more people I know get engaged with Twitter, but that’s a pretty decent distinction.

Still not sure if Twitter is for you? Mmm-kay, pumpkin. Let’s break it down:

You might wanna use Twitter if:

• You can express yourself in less than 140 characters
• You have interesting, relevant, or otherwise helpful information to share with others (strangers and friends)
• You own a business, and are looking for a free way to tell people about it, or to engage with specific audiences
• You’re an expert in some specific area
• You really enjoy text messaging
• You’re an exhibitionist
• You’re a voyeur
• You talk to yourself, cuz there is no one to talk to…people ask you why, why you do what you doooooo….

Here are some of the people I follow on Twitter and why:

• badbanana – Intelligent bits of humor like this:
  • “These poor people in flood-ravaged North Dakota. Kanye West says it’s because Obama hates white people.”
• MeLikeGoodMusic – Alwasys shares good tunes (new, old, and unknown) like:
  •  ”Underrated Music – Midnight Juggernauts “Shadows” – http://tinyurl.com/dh9f6u“
• AtlIntownPaper – endless info on not-your-everyday events like:  
  • “High Museum will offer half-price tix 4/2 from 4-8pm courtesy of GE, sponsor of the Terracotta Army exhibit. http://tinyurl.com/2pk3tp“
• Kwanza Hall - Atlanta city councilman that shares firsthand news about the city like:
  • “AJC wants to know if I think the Peachtree Pine Shelter is a good thing or would I rather see it closed?”

 What I tweet about:

• Witty observations about my daily life (esp. anything that happens on MARTA)
• Events I saw or heard about that are happening or that I’m personally attending within the next 1-48 hours
• New blog posts that I write here
• Re-tweeting (i.e., forwarding) interesting or informative things someone else tweeted to me

Like any other social networking tool, there a loads of  people on Twitter that are either 1. overly addicted to it (I’m a recovering addict mahself), or 2. sharing a wee-bit too much (I really don’t need to know what your burps taste like, thank you). It’s up to you who you engage with and how you engage with others, so Twitter – like everything else in life – is really what you make it.

Case in point:
The Truth About Twitter

 
cheers,

k
Ksolo22 on Twitter

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